Teen Reads

Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

Leaving ParadiseIn alternating chapters, seventeen-year-olds Caleb and Maggie relate the difficulties of readjusting to school, and changing relationships with family… friends, and one another, a year after a drunk driving accident sent her to the hospital with a crippling leg injury and him to prison.

Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita

Sleepaway GirlsWhen the exceptionally people-pleasing Sam spends a summer as a counselor-in-training, she learns how to say no… to stand up for herself, and what it feels like to have a crush on a great guy.

Peace, Love and Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle

Peace, Love and Baby DucksFifteen-year-old Carly’s summer volunteer experience makes her feel more real than her life of privilege in Atlanta ever did… but her younger sister starts high school pretending to be what she is not, and both find their relationships suffering.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

The Forest of Hands and TeethMary’s village has been trapped for generations by a very near, very visible menace: the “Unconsecrated” insatiable, flesh-eating zombies that constantly tear at the village’s fences. Yet the Sisterhood a convent-like order of religious women charged to protect the village’s survival is as much responsible for the submission of Mary’s village as the Unconsecrated. When the fences are breached and the village overrun, Mary and several others escape through gated paths and arrive deep into the Forest of Hands and Teeth, forced to search beyond it for their future.

Total Constant Order by Crissa-Jean Chappell

Resentful and upset when her family moves from Vermont to Miami, Florida, and her parents’ fighting escalates, high-schooler Fin develops OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) and becomes consumed with numbers, counting, irrational worrying, and avoiding germs.  Fin feels completely alone until she meets Thayer, a troubled classmate who might just be the one who can understand her problems the most.